Now the Cowdenbeath playmaker – who spent a couple of seasons with Real Mallorca – is acting as his minder as the central defender tries to adapt to the rough and tumble of Scottish football.

This was about as far removed from Spain’s El Classico derby as you could get but there were thrills and spills galore in an eight-goal frenzy which oozed passion.

The Blue Brazil twice surged into two-goal leads and on both occasions they were hauled back level, the second time with a Simon Mensing header deep into stoppage time .

Stevenson said: “In both halves we were 2-0 up and both times it ended two-each to finish four-each, so at the final whistle it felt like a defeat.

“But the same thing happened for us at Livingston when we scored a last-minute goal, so these things tend to level themselves out over the course of the season. Or, at least, I hope they do.”

He said of Rey, who battled through the pain game of a hamstring injury: “I don’t have to help Ruben with the language much now because he can speak a bit.

“He has come in and done well. But it’s a lot more physical than he is used to and I’m now helping him out with that.

“It was a tough game for him, especially up against someone such as big Brian Graham, who is one of the best guys in the league at getting a sniff of goal and taking it. Apart from Brian scoring at the free-kick from the pass-back, Ruben kept him quite quiet. Big Brian is a handful so Ruben did well.”

Both Stevenson and his manager Colin Cameron reckoned Rey was hard done to in a goalmouth scramble when ref Bobby Madden ruled the Spaniard had passed the ball back to keeper Thomas Flynn.

The home side had snatched the lead after six minutes when Kyle Miller pounced on a rebound to score.

And when Stevenson hit a screamer with a 40-yard free-kick into the bottom left in 23 minutes, it looked like the bragging rights were staying in Cowdenbeath.

But then came Graham’s shot through a clutch of defenders who stampeded from the line to try to block the pile-driver 10 minutes from the break. And just before the interval, Greig Spence glanced a header into the roof of the net from Hamill’s farside corner.

After the restart, Blue Brazil sub Lewis Coult delivered a devastating double to earn the sponsors’ bottle of champers.

He ran in to guide a fine header away from David McGurn in 77 minutes following a terrific delivery from Marc McKenzie. Then he ran free minutes later to fire a shot against McGurn before easing home the rebound.

But Rovers raged back into it with sub Pat Clarke lashing in a shot through a packed penalty area only two minutes after he had replaced Dave Smith.

And three minutes into stoppage time, Mensing sent a 10-yard diagonal header sailing over McGurn after latching on to Dougie Hill’s flick before celebrating with the large travelling Rovers support.